This book is the first comprehensive study of the theory, the conventions and the history of the mock-heroic genre.

Foreword; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. The Conventions of the Mock-Heroic Poem: 1. The presentation of contemporary reality; 2. The disguise and suspension of reality; 3. Imitation and parody of the epic; 4. The mock-heroic poem as satire; Part II. The History of the Mock-Heroic Poem: 5. Different types of mock-heroic poem and their pre-neoclassical models; 6. Boileau's Le Lutrin and the first phase of the genre's development in England (c. 1681 - c. 1712); 7. Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1712-14); 8. The Rape of the Lock and the heroi-comical poem (second phase, c. 1714 - c. 1742); 9. Pope's Dunciad (1728-43); 10. The decline and fall of the mock-heroic poem (third phase, c. 1742 - c. 1800); Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index of authors and titles.